In this case, America is definitely not number one -- particularly when compared to nations accused of oppressing women. For example, in Iraq, 26.5 percent of the seats in the national legislature are held by women, In Pakistan, it's 20.7 percent. In Afghanistan, law requires 20 percent of council seats be held by women. Even in Saudi Arabia, where women can't drive and must be accompanied by a male companion whenever they go out, women hold 19.9 percent of the elected seats -- now that they can vote and hold office.

While the United States has never had a woman president, many other countries have. That includes Iceland, India, Israel, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Portugal, Norway, Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, France, Poland, Turkey, Canada, Rwanda, Ukraine, Germany, South Korea, Peru, Denmark and Scotland.

While U.S. women hold more top corporate positions than they once did, only 23 of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies in the United States are female. That's only 4.6 percent. And women still do not earn the same amount as men, paid only 78 cents for every dollar their male counterparts get.

Women now serve in jobs defined as male in those children's books, doctor, lawyer, fire fighter, police officer, so many that the names have changed from fireman and policeman. But few are fire or police chiefs.

Women have outnumbered men in American colleges for 35 years, and they now account for 57 percent of students in degree-granting institutions of higher education. And now men only slightly outnumber women in medical and law schools. That means a women can easily find a female divorce attorney and an ob-gyn who has a first-hand understanding of the female anatomy.

Even so, remarkably few people, male or female, get the answer to this riddle:
A man is killed and his son injured in a car crash. The boy is taken to a hospital where the emergency room surgeon announces, "I can't operate on this boy."

"Why not?" the nurse asks.

"Because he's my son," the doctor responds.

How is this possible?

The answer, of course, is that the surgeon is the boy's mother.

We might have come part way, but we've still got a long way to go.

It would be great if a leap in progress could be made over the next year and a half. I hope that in November of 2016, I'll be able honestly say to my 7-year-old son and daughter: "Look, at that woman on TV. She's going to be President of the United States! Don't let anyone tell you any job is too difficult for a woman."

And I'll read to them both one children's book describing exciting careers.